A number of personal care products, which are solid at room temperature, are packaged in tubular containers constructed to expose a small amount of the product at the open upper end of the container. Typically, these containers have a cap over the open end to enclose the product when it is stored or not in use. Products of this type typically are lipstick, stick deodorant, eye color, facial blushes and the like. The typical containers for these products usually have the product attached to or mounted on a lower platform, which is moved up and down in the main hollow container by means of a rotational screw-like apparatus. The product is moved upwardly beyond the upper edge of the main container when it is to be used. Some of these containers permit the product to be retracted back into the container when it is not in use. Most products of the type mentioned above, while they are solid at room temperature, are somewhat soft gels, of a wax-like consistency. Such products comprise colloidal solutions which have set into semi-solid jellies.
Three patents which are directed to packages for gel-type deodorant sticks and lipsticks are the U.S. patents to Small U.S. Pat. No. 1,969,331 and Lorscheidt U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,311, and the British patent specification No. 681,439. These three patents all are directed to "push-up" dispensers for either deodorant or lipstick, in which a piston is mounted inside an elongated cylinder for movement within the cylinder. The deodorant gel or lipstick then is carried by the piston, which may be pushed upwardly out of the cylinder from the open bottom of the cylindrical container to present the deodorant stick gel or lipstick for application.
None of the products of the prior art, which are mentioned above and which are known to applicant, however, are intended to be wetted with water prior to their use. Most of them contain a substantial amount of moisture, inherently bound into the product; so that external application of water to permit use of the product is not required.
In the field of personal deodorants, however, solid rock-like crystal deodorants are gaining increasing acceptance. In contrast to gels, crystals comprise mineral bodies which have a regular repeating, interlinked molecular, geometric form. These crystal deodorants are made in a variety of shapes, typically from postassium alum, ammonium alum or other similar alum salts, the molecular structure of which has assumed a regular, repetitive interlinked geometric form. They are hard and somewhat brittle. To use such crystal deodorants, the user either immerses them briefly in water, or places them under running water from a tap. The crystal then is rubbed over the area of the body to which the deodorant is to be applied. After use, the still wet crystal typically is placed on a sponge or in a storage container, where it is allowed to dry out. When such crystal deodorants are wet, they tend to be somewhat slippery, and sometimes slip out of the hands of the user. Because they are brittle, if they fall onto a hard counter top surface or a hard floor, parts may chip off, or the crystal may shatter.
It is desirable to provide a push-up container for use with solid crystal deodorants, which overcomes the handling disadvantages of solid crystal deodorants and permits use of such deodorants in a uniquely designed push-up package.